Predatory Lending Practices

by Brian McIlmoyle on March 19, 2014

It’s hard to avoid advertising for “Fast Loans” it’s everywhere. Pay day loan companies seem to spring up like mushrooms after rain. They are everywhere.

What offends me about their advertising is the way in which they couch their offers in words designed to entice people who are under financial stress to use their services. Help, relief and building credit all figure large in their marketing, but do they really offer any of these things?

Borrowing money to catch up on outstanding bill payments is a extreme measure, yet these companies strive to make it seem routine. They want you to use their services as a regular part of your financial management processes. Once you have taken your first pay day loan, often you are placed into a position of needing to take more. A deficit in a cashflow can’t be relieved by getting your pay earlier. The shortfall is still there, borrowing to cover it just defers the inevitable day of reckoning. Adding on debt to an already stressed budget is far from the “help” that these short term lenders claim. Really they are only helping themselves to your last dollar.

Many people are surprised to learn that lenders take a dim view of finding pay day loans on your credit report. Far from building your credit, such loans actually damage it.

If you find yourself in the position of having to borrow money to pay your basic expenses, you don’t need another loan, you need to get rid of the debt you have.

Turn away from that pay day lender, and call me instead, I can help you deal with your debt problems for good.